The Nonlinear Library EA - AMA: Founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation, Rob Mather by tobytrem
Dec 12, 2023
03:56
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: AMA: Founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation, Rob Mather, published by tobytrem on December 12, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
TLDR: Share questions for Rob Mather (founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation) in the comments of this post, by the 19th of December. Ask about anything!
Comment on this post to ask Rob Mather, the founder and CEO of the
Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), the charity that has protected 448,414,801 people with malaria nets, anything by the 19th of December.
I'll be interviewing him live on 19th of December, at 6pm UTC. The interview will be hosted live on a link that I'll comment here before the event. I'll ask the questions you share on this post (and possibly some of my own). Although we might not get through all of them; we'll get through as many as we can in an hour.
We'll aim for two dollars a net, two minutes an answer, so try to post short questions (1-2 sentences). Feel free to ask several questions (or add follow ups), though! If editing your question down would take a while, don't worry, I can shorten it.
Though the questions won't be answered in the comments of this post, don't worry if you can't attend the live event. We'll post a video recording and perhaps a podcast version in the comments of this post.
Some context for your questions:
AMF distributes insecticide treated bed nets to protect sleepers from the bites of malaria carrying mosquitos, that would otherwise cause severe illness or worse. You can read about the toll of malaria on this
Our World in Data page, and the effectiveness of bednets in
this GiveWell report.
Since 2009 AMF has been featured as a GiveWell top charity.
Rob founded AMF in 2005. Since then, it has grown from a team of two to a team of thirteen. In 2006, they brought in $1,3 million in donations. In 2022, they brought in $120 million. AMF has received $545 million in donations to date, and has distributed 249 million bed nets.
Currently, AMF's team of 13 is in the middle of a nine-month period during which they are distributing, with partners, 90 million nets to protect 160 million people in six countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
Rob tells me that: "These nets alone can be expected to prevent 40,000 deaths, avert 20 to 40 million cases of malaria and lead to a US$2.2 billion improvement in local economies (12x the funds applied). When people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits."
Impact numbers: Once all of the nets AMF has fundraised for so far have been distributed and have been given time to have their effect, AMF expects that they will have prevented 185,000 deaths, averted 100-185 million cases of malaria, and led to growth worth $6.5 billion in local economies.
Some other links to check out:
A video from GWWC telling
the story of how Rob founded AMF.
Rob's
previous Forum AMA, four years ago. Rob discussed:
The implications of adding 5 more staff to AMF's two person team.
The flow-through effects of saving lives with bed nets.
AMF's
2023 reflections and future plans. In it, Rob explains that:
AMF has a $300m
funding gap.
The Global Fund, the top funder for Malaria control activities, has a $2.3B shortfall in 2024-6 funding, increasing the undersupply of malaria nets.
Insecticide resistant mosquitoes are becoming more common, which may damage the effectiveness of older nets.
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org
TLDR: Share questions for Rob Mather (founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation) in the comments of this post, by the 19th of December. Ask about anything!
Comment on this post to ask Rob Mather, the founder and CEO of the
Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), the charity that has protected 448,414,801 people with malaria nets, anything by the 19th of December.
I'll be interviewing him live on 19th of December, at 6pm UTC. The interview will be hosted live on a link that I'll comment here before the event. I'll ask the questions you share on this post (and possibly some of my own). Although we might not get through all of them; we'll get through as many as we can in an hour.
We'll aim for two dollars a net, two minutes an answer, so try to post short questions (1-2 sentences). Feel free to ask several questions (or add follow ups), though! If editing your question down would take a while, don't worry, I can shorten it.
Though the questions won't be answered in the comments of this post, don't worry if you can't attend the live event. We'll post a video recording and perhaps a podcast version in the comments of this post.
Some context for your questions:
AMF distributes insecticide treated bed nets to protect sleepers from the bites of malaria carrying mosquitos, that would otherwise cause severe illness or worse. You can read about the toll of malaria on this
Our World in Data page, and the effectiveness of bednets in
this GiveWell report.
Since 2009 AMF has been featured as a GiveWell top charity.
Rob founded AMF in 2005. Since then, it has grown from a team of two to a team of thirteen. In 2006, they brought in $1,3 million in donations. In 2022, they brought in $120 million. AMF has received $545 million in donations to date, and has distributed 249 million bed nets.
Currently, AMF's team of 13 is in the middle of a nine-month period during which they are distributing, with partners, 90 million nets to protect 160 million people in six countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
Rob tells me that: "These nets alone can be expected to prevent 40,000 deaths, avert 20 to 40 million cases of malaria and lead to a US$2.2 billion improvement in local economies (12x the funds applied). When people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits."
Impact numbers: Once all of the nets AMF has fundraised for so far have been distributed and have been given time to have their effect, AMF expects that they will have prevented 185,000 deaths, averted 100-185 million cases of malaria, and led to growth worth $6.5 billion in local economies.
Some other links to check out:
A video from GWWC telling
the story of how Rob founded AMF.
Rob's
previous Forum AMA, four years ago. Rob discussed:
The implications of adding 5 more staff to AMF's two person team.
The flow-through effects of saving lives with bed nets.
AMF's
2023 reflections and future plans. In it, Rob explains that:
AMF has a $300m
funding gap.
The Global Fund, the top funder for Malaria control activities, has a $2.3B shortfall in 2024-6 funding, increasing the undersupply of malaria nets.
Insecticide resistant mosquitoes are becoming more common, which may damage the effectiveness of older nets.
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org